The present invention relates to hinge locator devices for assisting in the mounting of hinges. More particularly, the invention relates to a locator device for locating the centerline of a piano hinge.
Piano hinges, which are sometimes called continuous hinges, have long, narrow hinge leaves or plates and a long continuous hinge pin that runs substantially the entire length of the hinge joint. Piano hinges are used in many applications that require support of heavy or large doors such as aircraft cargo doors. Piano hinges are also often used in applications that do not have room for wide hinge leaves and/or when it is desired to have less prominent hinge leaves.
Because it is difficult to manufacture, transport, and install extremely long hinges, many piano hinges include a number of shorter hinge segments that are aligned end-to-end on a door or doorframe. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the hinge segments must be precisely aligned or else the associated hinge pin will not fit through all the hinge segments. Known hinge segment alignment methods use hard tooling that is expensive to manufacture and difficult to use. Moreover, such tooling is typically configured for a specific hinge size and type, thus necessitating different tooling for every different size and type of hinge.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved hinge locator that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.